No abstract

As the population censuses show, the average household size in France has decreased steadily over the past 50 years. There are fewer complex households (comprising members other than parents and their children) and more oneand two-person households (Daguet, 2007;Breuil-Genier, 2012). This trend is driven by changes in aspects of family behaviour such as the age of departure from the parental home, union formation, births, separations, departure of adult children, widowhood, etc. The change in population structure, notably the increasing share of older adults, has also contributed in recent years to the decrease in household size. The main aim of the census is to count the number of inhabitants (to estimate de jure populations) and to describe the size and structure of local populations on the basis of simple characteristics (sex, age, employment status, place of work or study) that provide useful information for local management of their needs. But the census is also the primary data source used by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), to describe family situations at local and national levels.After describing the family situations of the French population as observed in the 2009 census, this article presents developments over the past 40 years by systematically comparing family situations by sex and age recorded in three censuses spaced around 20 years apart : 1968, 1990 and 2009. This comparison is based on harmonized data drawn from these censuses, constructed for metropolitan France (mainland France and Corsica).Some family situations are poorly identifi ed by the census, whose main purpose is to count the number of occupants in each dwelling. We show how these situations can be described more accurately, either in the census itself or in more detailed surveys. Finally, the advantages of the census based on rolling annual surveys are discussed.

No abstract

No abstract